Personally, I'd like to know how they fit more than 600 pounds of gold in a powder can. If anyone bothered to figure out how much that gold coin hoard would have weighed, you'd be more than a tiny bit skeptical about the claim in the paper.

FORTUNE IN BURIED GOLD, TREASURE TROVE, REVEALED ON FARM AT DEMOPOLIS, ALA. AMOUNT OF BURIED GOLD FOUND ESTIMATED AT OVER HALF MILLION By Associated Press. Demopolis, Ala., June 1. —Tales of treasure trove are revealed in the find of buried gold estimated at more than $600,000 on the Whitfield farm near here.. The cache, believed to have been hidden from Union Armies during the civil war, by Boaz Whitfield, was discovered by means of a key left to his son, C. Gayon Whitfield of Middlesboro, Ky. The treasure consisted of twenty dollar gold pieces, minted in 1850 and before. It wes found in an old powder can that crumpled on touch. Gold pieces had been found on the farm from time to time but a search for buried caches was not made by the Whitfield family until the location of the key in Kentucky, A gang of negroes digging for a buried "boundary stake" unearthed the treasure yesterday. The negroes dug for a whole week without success. They then stumbled on the powder can and its contents. Nine heirs may bid for the gold. Some of them are descendants of the brothers of Boaz Whitfield, who was the son of General Nathan Bryan Whitfield, pioneer. Many of the South’s aristocratic and wealthy families burled money and gold and silver plate during the Civil War to prevent seizure by Union soldiers.